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The Coast | News, events, restaurants, concerts and Burger Week for Halifax, Nova Scotia
Home of the Best of Halifax Reader's Choice Awards, the award-winning independent newspaper covers the Halifax news, politics, events, concerts, movies, restaurants, and nightlife scene.
Last Thursday, at a yellow arches, you were having an emotional ‘why do you keep sleeping with him?’ conversation with what looked like the world’s most disinterested straight girl. You even had to put your sunglasses on to hide your crying. I wish there was a kind of lesbian signal I could have given you…
So, I’m walking my scathing ass downtown when I see an asshole abandon his Mercedes in the middle of an intersection, while running, during rush hour. What the fuck? WHAT ARE YOU DOING? Oh, you’re helping an old man in a wheelchair make it across the street. Oh, you’re actually a sweetheart who doesn’t give…
Walking down Spring Garden at night can be scary sometimes. The guy I saw last night with red-ringed eyes, holding a wilted flower, yelling at every female unfortunate enough to walk past him—he was pretty scary. So this note is for the cops that pulled up on him just after he frightened two young girls…
[Image-1] This is not the kind of civil unrest we need at the moment. There are more important issues we need to be dealing with. What we need is to take back our communities. Take back our safety. Citizen groups on patrol. Almost everyone has a cell phone. Call the police. Using fear as a…
Sonic Avenues, Montreal’s longtime punk squad, return to the stage following the release of their fourth album Disconnector. In an effort to evolve their garage sound, this new record brings a new take on the band’s signature “fast, noisy, fuzzed-out sing-alongs.” In advance of Sonic Ave’s Halifax tour stop this Saturday, we caught up with…
[Image-1] Nearly 22 years after the BLAC Report on Education detailed the systemic racism in the Nova Scotia school system, problems still persist for African Nova Scotian students. “Things have somewhat changed,” since the report was released, says the incumbent African Nova Scotian School Board Member candidate, Melinda Daye. “But for anyone to say that we’ve…
The other day I left .05 cents on a pipe in a well-frequented stairwell at my workplace just to see how long it would go unnoticed. Today I was on my way out when I looked at the spot where I’d placed my nickel only to find out that it had become a quarter! LOL…
[Image-1] I’ve lived in a lot of places, in Canada and abroad. By FAR the Maritimes is populated with the most small minded, petty, closet-racist, closet-homophobic, Indigenous-hating, we’ve-done-it-like-this-for-decades-and-our-unwillingness-to-change-will-be-our-ultimate-demise, downright-NIMBY assholes I’ve ever met. You can’t afford NOT to have a carbon tax, morons. Those wind turbines? You don’t hate them because they look bad, you hate…
I feel blue when you leave. It’s too bad you never had the nerve to make it real. I don’t know what you thought or how you felt. I guess, realistically, I dont know you. It was just me and my imagination being playful. But there was never anything tangible for me to sink my…
I hope that this somehow finds it’s way to you……The gentleman who stood in my lineup at the checkout on Friday right in the middle of the ‘rush hour’ who look me right in the eyes and said I looked like a Celtic Princess and then you walked away. You were sincere, not creepy and…
[Image-1] Few things are more divisive than amalgamation. In the 20 years since the diverse communities of Halifax County were brought together by then-premier John Savage into the mega-blob of the HRM, criticisms of the amalgamated municipality—whether that’s resistance to signs that say ‘Halifax’ in a Dartmouth park, or protests of municipality-wide bylaws—have come up…
Sending a big happy face to the very handsome number 7 bus driver that puts a big smile on my face every morning!! —Bus driver
Was a fantastic event,loved sampling and talking to the growers. Only bitch: Chowder was very thin, mostly salmon, and a small serving for $5. —halifax seafood lover for 50 years
[Image-1] Apartment hunting on kijiji and trying to find an affordable place in a decent location is like trying to catch a fart in a windstorm. The most shit-hole in the wall you can imagine is at least $750/month. Heat and hot water is rarely included. It will say Dartmouth, until you click open the…
[Image-1] Changes need to be made to Nova Scotia’s Freedom of Information Act. That’s the call being made by critics after premier Stephen McNeil’s admission to using personal phone calls to get around the government’s duty to document. In September, the Office of Information and Privacy (OIP) published a report stating that texts, MMS and Blackberry…
[Image-1] In between all the turkey and mashed potatoes this weekend will be a lot of down-time to try and ignore family members and escape into a blissful fantasy world of outlandish characters and scripted dialogue. Sure, Sunday’s American presidential town hall just got a whole hell of a lot more interesting, but closer to…
[Image-1] In the interest of democracy, it’d be easy to puff up our chests and blubber about how voting is important and this is a watershed election for the municipality. Thing is, yeah, it kind of is. In short order after October 15, the Centre Plan will finally be unleashed to (hopefully) guide smart, sensible…
[Image-1] On Friday I read a Voice of the City piece by Rhys Alden (“Don’t encourage the edgy, white liberals running for council”). I’m not sure where the strong reaction comes from as Rhys has never met me or attempted to make contact. In the end, the voters will decide, and that’s how our democracy should…
When Mengyi Bian hopped on a plane from China to start her business degree at Dalhousie, she wasn’t necessarily planning to set up shop in Halifax. But after spotting a niche, her entrepreneurial senses kicked in. “I was thinking of bringing international to local,” she says of her idea for Moon Moon Cosmetics, a new…
12 Halifax Record Fair Saturday, October 8, 10am-4pm With stacks of new and used vinyl in every imaginable genre to sift through, this is the place for music lovers to dig for rarities and new favourites. You might just find a new treasure! Held at the Forum. 11 Thanksgiving Brunch Sunday, October 9 If you’re…
[Image-1] An incumbent city councillor, his predecessor and a political rookie duked it out over the past, present and future of Halifax South Downtown at an all-candidates meeting Wednesday night. More than 50 people flooded the room at Spencer House, some watching the proceedings with one foot outside as they straddled the doorway. Emotions in…
[Image-1] Pride’s role in supporting the LGBTQ+ community is being called into question after a controversial anti-pinkwashing proposal was voted down at the organization’s annual general meeting. “Halifax Pride failed us,” said Nova Scotia Rainbow Action Project (NSRAP) board member Ardath Whynacht after the vote. Over 300 people were in attendance for the meeting Wednesday…
[Image-1] “The challenge is, as a mayor, you want to focus on big issues,” says Mike Savage of his past four years. It’s a difficult role—to act as a figure head and authority on an entire municipality. “I was a member of parliament for three terms, and nobody really ever called me up to ask…
[Image-1] With a municipal election on the way, signs bearing the names of candidates for Regional Council have flooded the city. But there are other names on the upcoming ballot that you may not have heard as much about. On October 15, voters will also be selecting representatives for the Halifax Regional School Board and…
It takes some gusto to challenge an incumbent, especially if you’re the only one doing it. But Lil MacPherson was called to action last year after attending the United Nations climate change conference in Paris. “They talked a lot about the role that municipalities can have,” she says, “the role that mayors can have and…
Sloan made me want to be in a band. From the first time I watched them on MuchMusic (“The Other Man”—still my favourite music video) to seeing them play Twice Removed at the Marquee, I was enamoured. During my Masters at Dalhousie, under the guidance of Dr. J (shout out to Jacqueline Warwick!) I examined…
[Image-1] The race for re-election this year for four Halifax council members turned out to be a non-starter. Councillors Lorelei Nicoll (Cole Harbour-Westphal), Tim Outhit (Bedford-Wentworth), Bill Karsten (Dartmouth South-Eastern Passage) and Steve Craig (Lower Sackville) all won their seats by acclamation. In the 2012 municipal election, Nicoll defeated two challengers and Outhit bested one…
[Image-1] Municipal politics determine roads, police, garbage collection, the legality of urban chickens and myriad other services that make up daily life—so why is it so hard to get people to care about municipal elections? Past elections have shown it’s very hard indeed. In Halifax’s 2012 election, voter turnout was just shy of 37 percent,…
[Image-1] For Keke Beatz, a drive to North Preston means that he’s going to honk his horn a few times. Not because he’s frustrated, but because he wants to say hi to his neighbours and friends he spots outside his car window. “When you’re driving, people wave to you,” he says. “I don’t know if…
[Image-1] This will be the only time Donald Trump is brought up while talking about HRM’s election. Promise. The tire fire of hatred that Trump so expertly stokes in the American presidential race seems a million miles away from the municipal contests being fought in Halifax. This is a place where the four declared candidates…
[Image-1] Being the critical voice for the arts and city politics that we are, The Coast gathered three opinionated experts to sit down and comment on the best (and worst) election signs dotting the HRM. (Also we thought it’d be funny.) Chris Parsons (activist and occasional writer, @cultureofdefeat), Elizabeth MacMichael (illustrator, @lizmacdraws) and Matt Brand…
Q A question on your favourite topic, Dan. Just kidding, it’s a question about my vagina. I’m having a problem with the microbiome of my vulva and vagina. I’ve been going to my gyno for the last six months for recurrent bacterial vaginosis and yeast infections. She shrugs, gives me a script, the symptoms go…
Elect democracy Having participated in a public meeting on electoral reform in Sackville on September 29 called by the federal MP, and though not an expert on all the details of the voting options, I came away somewhat shocked by the apparent lack of awareness and knowledge of relevant facts that I had witnessed. It…
HAPPY BIRTHDAY Leo (Sep 23-Oct 22) “It isn’t normal to know what we want,” said psychologist Abraham Maslow. “It is a rare and difficult psychological achievement.” He wasn’t referring to the question of what you want for dinner or the new shoes you plan to buy. He was talking about big, long-term yearnings: What you…
[Image-1] I’ve often thought politicians inhabit a parallel universe. Maybe it’s just widespread cognitive dissonance, coupled with a lack of imagination, that compels them to engage in so much contradictory behaviour. Trying to appease so many varying interests isn’t easy. Rather than focusing on short-term economic and corporate priorities, though, politicians should first consider the…
Cousin’s Restaurant Every dinner at Cousin’s feels like a family dinner, and Thanksgiving takes it to a new level. The Kanellakos family serves up a tasty turkey dinner with all the fixings, served with a soup appetizer and either pumpkin pie or rice pudding for dessert. 3545 Robie Street, $14.95 The Esquire Restaurant You don’t…
[Image-1] Last week in the north end I came across a large storefront freshly painted in blue. It wasn’t yet another curated artisan gift store, but a campaign office, now manspreading itself along Gottingen Street on behalf of prospective councillor Brenden Sommerhalder. In April, Sommerhalder announced he would stand for District 8 after other candidates dropped…
For more than 12 years, Foxy Moon Hair Gallery has been doing things just a little bit differently. One of the first locations in Halifax to join the Green Circle Salons, Foxy Moon works to be a sustainable salon, with green principles in dealing with the waste a salon produces. Eveyneia Dexter also stresses excellent…
